Author
Topic: Access Connection Issues (Read 3529 times)

I installed the Access the other day and last night, set it up on MyAcurite. After removing the old SmartHub from the account, all seemed well. But the Access wasn't uploading data. I unplugged the unit...then remembered the battery backup. So I unplugged the Ethernet, waited, replugged and all seemed well. I noticed my upload times weren't as instantaneous as with the SmartHub, but all the data was showing on WU. I believe someone here mentioned it doesn't send data as frequently, but it send all the data it's captured.

This morning, it seems to have stopped sending data again. I went on to the MyAcurite website and the status is color is yellow and says "Weak". But looking at the signal strength, it says "Strong".

If it's not sending faster than the smarthub, you have a signal problem. It seems like you are not getting 18 second hits from the 5n1, so moving the access to a better location is the best thing to try. You can pull up your diagnostic page thru your router (192.168.XX) and check you signal. As you move the access around, hit refresh to see if the signal has improved. The dashboard does not update for a long time, so that is not a good way to know quickly if you have a good signal.

It's been good for the last few hours. I'll be keeping an eye on it. I have to imagine it's the Access/5 in 1 connection that's being lost since I have a data gap of about 40 minutes in that time period. I'm thinking if it was a network issue, the battery backup would have saved the data and sent it once the network was back up again. My SmartHub had connection issues here and there. I was hoping the Access would alleviate that.

Did a full reboot on the unit yesterday late afternoon; unplugged, pulled the batteries and the ethernet cable. Waited a few minutes and reconnected. I also put the Access on top of a box to give it a bit more height. Worked great util about 3AM this morning when I had about an hour drop off. Then it came back online again.

Anyone know how the antenna in the Access is oriented? Maybe positioning it so it faces the 5 in 1 will help.

Do you have a console available and does it show a loss of connectivity from the 5-in-1?

What was the outside temperature at 3:00 AM when the connection broke?

Do you have lithium batteries in your 5-in-1?

My 5-in-1 will randomly stop transmitting for a few hours when the temps drop to near 0F on alkaline batteries. I have another piece of equipment outdoors that does battery voltage graphing, and it shows a quarter volt drop between 32F and 0F even running cold-weather-recommended lithium batteries. Just want to verify that your signal problem isn't because the 5-in-1 stops sending.....

Thank you both! I appreciate the feedback. With the antenna setup, I guess I'll refrain from spinning it around to try to get a better signal. I know you could do that with the SmartHub and it would help.

Temps have warmed up a bit as of late. During the 3AM drop off it was 30.F then rose to 31.8F when it came back online. It dropped again this afternoon between about 12PM and 1PM Temp was 45F....then rose 45.1F when it came back online.

I haven't been awake or home when the drops happen, so I can't report on what the lights on the unit are doing at that time. I just know I have a data gap on WU and MyAcurite for both of those time periods. Is there a way to look at the console and check for data loss after the fact? I have the HD dsiplay for my 5 in 1.

Batteries are not Lithium. Starting to think it may be a good idea to put those in the outside unit to remove that as a possible problem.

I hooked up the old SmartHub again and I'll be running that as well as the Access. I'll keep an eye on the Access and note the drop offs and see if the SmartHub has the same issue. I have the SmartHub in a different location than the Access as of now.

I posted over on the Acurite support forum and gave Acurite a call. Long story short... I moved the Access away from the router a bit more. I also rebooted it a day or so after the move. Last night, things were much more steady. Only had one gap in data that was longer than 5 minutes.

I'm going to set up the second access at the other location in VT this weekend. I'll have both reporting to MyAcurite and will see if any issues pop up.

Keeping this updated in the event someone stumbles upon this in a forum search or google down the road.

My Access in CT has been fairly stable over the last few days. I will see an occasional report to MyAcurite that's longer than 5 minutes, but under 10 minutes. Seems those tend to happen around the 1AM time frame. The SmartHub has been chugging along fine until yesterday when it dropped off in the AM. I picked it up when we got home and it reconnected with no issues. So, moving the Access away from the router, Sonos Play 1 and Wink Hub 2 seems to have helped.

I have my second Access up and running in VT. That has proved to be stable so far. I just switched that to reporting out to WU. Interestingly enough, that's close to the router and the old hub. No issues thus far.

It's having connection issues again. It started very early Sunday morning around 2AM. It came back online on it's own. Then last night, it dropped off around 8:30PM and was offline when I woke up this morning.

I took a look at the Access and all lights were on; blue light up front, green in back, blinking yellow for data transmission. So I'm not 100% sure what's going on. It's like it's dropping signal between the 5 in 1. I pulled the batteries, unplugged all cables and let it sit. I plugged it in and it was online for a bit, then dropped again. My Acurite shows a signal strength of "strong" but states it's offline. To make it more interesting, my chart on WU is mostly blank, but WU says it's updating every X seconds. I'm seeing the temp and wind direction moving. I've got the SmartHub running in tandem on MyAcurite.com and that's been chugging along fine for the last few days.

A little searching tells me you are surrounded by Ham Radio operators. The nearest, I think, is only 3000 feet away from you. Not saying that is your problem, but you might want to look into it. Access/smartHUB have no real defenses against strong transmissions at 440 MHz.

So things have been normal for the last day or so; no drop outs. I'll keep and eye on it and report back. Again, it seems to be fine for a period, then it has some issues, then they go away. It's a hard one to chase down.

I noticed a heck of a lot of issues on the Acurite community board regarding problems with the Access. Maybe just beginners having problems getting it set correctly? There hasn't been much mention of Access problems here at wxforum.net so maybe it's not as problematic as it appears to be over at Acurite's site.

- If you quickly remove and restore power at the micro-USB connector, Access will hang up, and a disconnect and restore of the Ethernet connection will be needed to get it going again.- Access has been showing rain resets at random times.- Access has been logging phantom rain at times.- Access has had difficulty finding its way to AcuRite servers after a brief power outage.

I have about 7 months total run time on two devices. It took nearly that much before I experienced an issue.

These are not Noobie issues, they are real and need to be addressed. Hopefully soon.